Abstract
British decision to partition the island of Ireland in 1920 aroused lesser debate than one might retrospectively expect. While "united Ireland" later gained status of the "holy grail" of Irish republicanism, and while struggle for unity became important factor in Irish politics after the World War II, this was not the case in the state's formative years.
Irish nationalists of the time were concerned about sovereignty rather than unity, and indeed, the Irish imagined community had been defined in terms that straightforwardly excluded Protestant unionists of the north-east. Although partition was neither necessarily predictable or inevitable, let alone on clear ethnic lines, it nevertheless allowed creation of a nation-state based on idea of Ireland being Gaelic, Catholic, nationalist and, importantly, non-British.
In 1922, thus, autonomous Irish Free State emerged, in many aspects, as essentially a homogenous state. This paper argues that partition of Ireland, notwithstanding contemporary rhetoric or later concerns, lead to numerous advantages for Irish state-building in its early years.
Avoiding the complicated and possibly destabilising process of nation-building involving two exclusive identities, partition provided the Irish Free State with favourable conditions for responsive model of state-building and facilitated its quest for complete sovereignty, legitimacy and undisputedly distinctive identity. Furthermore, territorial power of the two island entities reinforced not only their viability, but also stability during the turmoil of the inter-war era.
Definitive failure of the Boundary Commission in 1925, nevertheless, admittedly produced sincere bitterness, left significant Irish nationalist minority in Northern Ireland and had long-term consequences resulting in the Northern Ireland Troubles in 1969.